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''' ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' ''' is a 1938 [[Warner Brothers]] [[Swashbuckler]] film, directed by Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, and B. Reeves Eason, and starring [[Errol Flynn]], considered by many the definitive cinematic version of the ''[[Robin Hood]]'' legend. The film won three [[Academy Award|Academy Awards]], for Best Art Direction (Carl Jules Weyl), Best Film Editing (Ralph Dawson), and Best Original Score ([[Erich Wolfgang Korngold]]).
 
The film was originally intended as a vehicle for [[WTH? Casting Agency|Jimmy Cagney]], who had gained critical approval for playing Bottom the Weaver in Warners' 1935 production of [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer NightsNight's Dream]]'' -- but when Cagney walked out on his Warners' contract, the project was retooled to accommodate rising Warners' star [[Errol Flynn]], who had in that same year made a huge impression as the swashbuckling lead of the [[Pirates|pirate]] romance, ''[[Captain Blood (Film)|Captain Blood]]''. Olivia de Havilland, having appeared in both movies, was a natural for the part of Lady Marian. Korngold, too, had been associated with the same two films, as adaptor of [[Felix Mendelssohn]]'s theatrical music for ''[[A Midsummer NightsNight's Dream|Dream]]'' and as composer of a (mostly) original score for ''[[Captain Blood (Film)|Captain Blood]]''. Basil Rathbone, having displayed in ''[[Captain Blood (Film)|Captain Blood]]'' as the evil pirate Levasseur a fine talent for fencing and sneering villainy, was tapped to play the part of Sir Guy of Gisbourne. When director William Keighley was determined by the Warner brothers to be too dilatory and measured in his approach to the film, he was replaced with yet another ''[[Captain Blood (Film)|Captain Blood]]'' alumnus, hard-driving director Michael Curtiz.
 
The script, by Seton I. Miller and Norman Reilly Raine, was considerably more faithful to both the matter and the spirit of the original Robin Hood ballads than earlier dramatic versions. This was largely in reaction to the 1924 Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., version, which had focused on a [[Knight in Shining Armor]] version of Robin, with much screen time devoted to [[The Crusades]] and tournaments and relatively little to the character's woodland outlawry. Early drafts of the script omitted Marian entirely, as Miller insisted that she was not part of the original mythos at all; fortunately, the [[Rule of Cool]] ([[Love Interests|romance division]]) and the chemistry between Flynn and de Havilland ensured her appearance in the final version. Miller did manage to include many elements of the ballads: the quarterstaff bout between Robin and Little John, Robin forcing Friar Tuck to carry him across the stream, even (delicately, for fear of the [[Moral Guardians|Catholic Legion of Decency]]) Robin's antipathy to bishops, though a sequence showing an exchange of fisticuffs with the disguised King in Sherwood was cut in the final edit. On the other hand, many elements that came into the legend only later were also incorporated into this version, such as the identification of the King with [[Richard the Lion Heart|Richard I]] from the Tudor historian John Major; the treachery of Prince John, the identification of Maid Marian with the King's ward, Lady Fitzwater, Robin's elevation to the nobility, from Anthony Mundy's Elizabethan plays; and the struggle between Normans and Saxons from Sir [[Walter Scott]]'s ''[[Ivanhoe]]''.
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[[Erich Wolfgang Korngold]] was initially reluctant to be associated with the "90% action picture"; however, the Warners were insistent, offering extremely generous payment for his services, and he at last agreed, leaving his native Austria just in time to escape its annexation by [[Those Wacky Nazis]] in March 1938. The Jewish Korngold was later [[Deadpan Snarker|accustomed to say]], "Robin Hood saved my life." It is said that Warners provided a [[Shown Their Work|voluminous report on 12th century music]] to the composer, which he promptly [[Did Not Do the Research|dumped into the wastebasket]] (''but see'' [[Regional Riff]], ''below''); in the event, Korngold's lush Late Romantic score, characterized by [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]] themes and [[Leitmotif|Leitmotiifs]], not only won the [[Academy Award]], but set a pattern for Film Music that has lasted down to the days of [[John Williams]] and [[Hans Zimmer]].
 
Other notable talents engaged for the film included fencing master Fred Cavens (yet another veteran of ''[[Captain Blood (Film)|Captain Blood]]''!) to [[Flynning|choreograph]] the [[Sword Fight|duels]] and [[The Archer|champion archer]] Howard Hill to perform the film's archery (and to appear in the small part of the "Captain of Archers"). There is some debate as to whether Hill actually accomplished the famous shot with which Robin splits an arrow with another arrow (the [[Myth Busters]] actually tested this one out), but it seems most likely that some form of staging was used. Various stuntmen were paid an extra $150 to allow Hill to shoot them in their specially padded torsos.
 
== Synopsis ==
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* [[Age Lift]]: The 48-year-old [[Claude Rains]] is cast as Prince John -- who was actually 26 at the time of Richard's imprisonment. (By contrast, John's ''older'' brother [[Richard the Lion Heart|Richard]], 37 at the time of his return from Germany, was played by 38-year-old Ian Hunter.)
* [[Annoying Arrows]]: Averted as being hit by Robin's arrows is apparently instant death, justified of course by the fact that we are talking about ''[[Robin Hood]]'' here...
* [[As Long Asas It Sounds Foreign|As Long As It Sounds Mediaeval]]: The Bishop of the Black Canons asks Prince John by what authority he claims to receive the blessing of the Church as Defender of the Holy Sepulcher. This is arrant nonsense, as the Defender of the Holy Sepulcher was the title of [[The Crusades|Godfrey de Bouillon]] as Christian ruler of ''Jerusalem'' and had nothing to do with England at all. (Oddly enough, the real Prince John as a boy actually ''was'' offered the position of Defender of the Holy Sepulcher, but his father turned it down for him, and sent him to Ireland instead.)
* [[Awesome Moment of Crowning]]: The coronation scene was probably inspired by the coronation of [[The House of Windsor|George VI]] of England.
* [[Badass]]: [[Errol Flynn]] as Robin.
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* [[The Dragon]]: Guy of Gisborne.
* [[Dramatic Unmask]]: Though rather more a dramatic ''unhooding'', this happens twice in the film, when Richard reveals that he is the King to Robin and his men in the forest, and when Richard reveals that he is the King and Robin and his men reveal that they are ... Robin and his men at the coronation.
* [[Expy]]: In ''The Mark of Zorro'', made two years after this film, Eugene Pallette would play another [[Church Militant|militant churchman]], Fray Felipe, a character obviously based on Friar Tuck. Moreover, Marian's lady-in-waiting, Bess (Una O'Connor) who has "had the bans up five times," is clearly modeled on the Wife of Bath in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''[[The Canterbury Tales (Literature)|Canterbury Tales]]''.
* [[The Evil Prince]]: Again Prince John.
* [[Fanfare]]: Korngold composed several for this film, notably one on solo trumpet for Robin (reused in his symphonic piece, ''Sursum Corda'') and a recurring one for the Normans.
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* [[King Incognito]]: Richard first appears in the film as a traveling pilgrim, then as a wandering abbot, ''then'' as one of the Bishop's black canons.
* [[Kneel Before Frodo]]: "All these...have remained loyal."
* [[Land in Thethe Saddle]]: Robin pulls off this jump with his hands tied behind his back. (Well, he's supposed to -- if you watch closely, the stunt guy's hands move in front of his body in one shot.)
* [[Men of Sherwood]]: Robin's men not only competently carry out the attack on Sir Guy's treasure caravan, but they also execute Robin's rescue from hanging even without his leadership. (The [[Trope Namer]])
* [[Musicalis Interruptus]] (sort of): The film features Will Scarlet as Robin's sidekick, presenting him as a minstrel-like figure (the usual minstrel figure, Allan-a-Dale, does not appear in the film). In the original script, Will actually was to have sung a song; however, an agreement with [[Metro Goldwyn Mayer|MGM]] prevented Warners from including any original musical numbers in their films in 1938, so Will's minstrelsy is reduced to a few chords on a mandolin at the beginning of Robin's quarterstaff bout with Little John. In effect, the [[Musicalis Interruptus|Interruptus]] took place before he even...er...touched his G-string.
* [[Notable Original Music]]: Korngold's lush romantic score, dubbed "Robin Hood in the Vienna Woods" by one wag. Notable for its use of [[Leitmotif]].
* [[Not Even Bothering Withwith the Accent]]: Of the main cast, only Prince John, the Sheriff, the Bishop, Will Scarlet, and Much are played by actual Englishmen, although King Richard and Sir Guy, both South Africans, and Robin, a Tasmanian, still speak received English. Maid Marian was of British parentage, though born in Tokyo and raised in California, and her maid Bess was from Northern Ireland. Little John and Friar Tuck remain thoroughly American, particularly the latter -- yet somehow this seems less disturbing than in other [[Robin Hood]] films. Sheer style, perhaps?
* [[Not So Harmless]]: As noted on the main [[Robin Hood]] page, the film slightly reshuffles the usual villain roles, leaving us with Sir Guy as [[The Dragon]] to Prince John's [[Big Bad]] -- the Sheriff is pretty much demoted to a [[Cowardly Sidekick]]. Oddly enough, though, the Sheriff, despite his surface buffoonery, is clever enough a) to realize Prince John's treasure caravan should take extra precautions against Robin Hood (he is overruled by Sir Guy), b) to devise a plan that actually captures Robin, and c) to survive the big final battle and to be merely exiled rather than executed.
* [[People of Hair Color]]: Largely averted. We are told of the dissension between Normans and Saxons, but its racial aspect is not notably stressed. Of the principals, on the Saxon side, only Will Scarlet is portrayed as a blond (possibly the better to contrast with his costume); Robin, Little John, Friar Tuck, and Much have light to medium brown hair. Of the Normans, King Richard (so far as we can tell) has brown hair; Prince John has dark red hair; Marian has reddish-brown hair; the Bishop has gray hair; Sir Guy and the rest of the Norman knights have dark brown to black hair. One may compare these portrayals to those of [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Merry_Adventures_of_Robin_Hood,_2_Frontispiece.png Howard Pyle] or [http://static.squidoo.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens1522758module8983548photo_USAwyeth.jpg1207336915 N.C. Wyeth].
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** The [[Looney Tunes]] short "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0IXO2eBPas Robin Hood Daffy]" (1958) mocks both Robin's swinging on a vine ("Yoicks, and away!") and his overly jolly laughter after being trounced and dunked by an opponent.
** In the 1982 film ''My Favorite Year'', [[Errol Flynn]] [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|avatar]] Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole) stumbles drunkenly into a projection-room where one of his old films is playing: the actors duelling therein are costumed exactly like Robin and Sir Guy in ''The Adventures of Robin Hood''.
** In the ''[[ALF (TV)|ALFTales]]'' cartoon version of the [[Robin Hood]] story (1988), the Merry Men spring off obvious trampolines during the attack on the treasure caravan (as they do in this film), and Gordon/Robin, painting a self-portrait, paints out what is obviously [[Errol Flynn]]'s face and substitutes his own.
** The ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]] episode'' "QPid" (1991) is pretty much a [[Whole-Plot Reference]], down to a fight between Robin/Picard and Guy of Gisborne on a staircase--which makes Vash's absolute refusal to play Marian a whole lot funnier. (Oddly, though, someone somewhere seems to have gotten Guy of Gisbourne and the Sheriff confused, because Q is clearly playing Basil-Rathbone-Guy but calls himself the Sheriff, and Guy more resembles the dim-witted, rotund Melville-Cooper-Sheriff .)
** ''[[Robin Hood: Men in Tights]]'' (1993) obviously takes a few shots, but most notable is Robin's grand entrance into Nottingham Castle's hall, with a deer taken from the King's forests draped over his shoulders (though Mel Brooks switches it to a boar so that Robin can compare it with Prince John).
* [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man]]: Marian, eagerly discussing Robin with Bess, says "he's brave and reckless, and yet he's gentle, too, not brutal like--" Like [[The Dragon|whom]], Marian?
* [[Smug Snake]]: Prince John.
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** She writes a letter to King Richard, telling him of the assassination plot and then hears a knock on her bedroom door. Despite the fact that there is a) a lady's maid next to her who ''successfully hides'' and b) a fire burning on the hearth ''right behind her'', she neither gives the letter to the maid nor throws it in the fire. Instead she puts it in a conspicious box on a table that she claps shut and still has her hands on when Sir Guy bursts through the door, and that she ''stares at'' while he toys with it.
*** "[["The Reason You Suck" Speech|You're a very charming woman, Marian, but not exactly clever.]]"
* [[What You Are in Thethe Dark]]: When the King in disguise sees Robin frantically ordering a massive search for the King to get him to safety, the King has all the proof he needs that the outlaw is loyal to him.
* [[You Fight Like a Cow]]: "Do you know any prayers, my friend?" "I'll say one for you!" ''etc.''
 
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